YIKES! Don't
you people have anything better to
do than play with gold pans?

Ever been in a
prospecting shop, standing in front
of the gold pans, and wonder which
one you should be using for what?
Keene pan, Garrett Supersluice,
Garrett gold pan, Proline, green,
blue, pink, orange, 12", 14", 20",
or? Cone shaped batea, metal gold
pans, plastic gold pans, copper,
round, rectangular, small rocker
shaped? Every year I see at least
two new models of gold pans come
out, and every year the person or
company behind the gold pan tells
you that it is the "best gold pan to
come along". And, it probably is,
for the type of gold panning it is
meant to do and the area it was
produced to work in. I am VERY
skeptical about them since the
ground I work is as heavy with black
sand as there is. The stuff is not
only plentiful it is fine. It's a
true test for any pan you want to
try as the small particles of gold
are very hard to get to settle
through them. So, we will attempt to
sort them out for you. Other areas
will have different results for the
same pan, and a panners' ability
will give different results as well.

Now, where to
start? I think, with the gold pans
that were used during the gold rush
in the U.S.. The old timers used
metal pans, then, and some of them
were approaching 30 inches in
diameter. That's a BIG pan! The
first time I saw one, I thought it
was a joke! Who could manipulate a
pan that big and heavy for any
length
of time? Someone did. We still use
the smaller 12 to 14 inch steel pans
in competitions, and some people
still prefer the steel gold pans to
the newer plastic gold pans. They
can rust pretty badly, which helps
trap the gold in them more easily
than if they were smooth. They can
be used for any part of the panning
process, and do a pretty good job if
you pay special attention to your
panning angle, speed of the water,
and not allow the black sands to
leave the crease. You will probably
lose more fine gold with them as
they do not have the newer riffling
systems that trap fine gold better.
The best gold pan style for quick
classification of material is still
the steel batea. Originally made of
wood, the coned shape classifies
material to the bottom of the pan
lightening fast. Its' one draw back
is that you will need another pan to
separate your gold from the black
sand, as the batea classifies
everything into the bottom of the
cone, where it is hard to get out
unless it is of a larger size. Once
the panner has finished with the
panning, the batea is inverted on
the ground and the black "button" is
scraped off with some of the sand
and put into a bucket for later
separation. Now, you CAN separate
with the batea, but it involves
dribbling water on to the bottom of
the cone and out to get the black
sand off of the gold. A tedious
process, but necessary in the World
competition of nations where you can
use only one pan. And even then,
batea users beat about 90% of the
field, finding pretty small gold.

With the
innovation of plastics, gold pans
became bigger and lighter without
losing anything in the pans' ability
to do its job. In fact, they became
more efficient, after the plastics'
slick patina is scrubbed off. The
plastic becomes rough, like the rust
in the steel pan, but the gold is
easier to see against the different
colors of the plastic pans than in
the rust of the metal pan. Since the
plastic is lighter you can
manipulate a much larger pan more
easily, thus classifying and
stratifying much more material at a
time. The bigger 14 to 20 inch pans
work very well for most of your
panning needs. They can be used for
stream panning and some cleanup
work, depending on the curvature of
the bottom.

Let's start
with the flat bottomed models. If
you want to own only one pan that
will do all the jobs a pan does, the
Keene gold pan is still one of the
best all around pan for all types of
panning and different black sand
concentrations in the stream. With
its larger gravel capacity and FLAT
wide bottom you can do your panning
and separation with the same pan,
and its raised riffle system traps
fine gold very well. If you are dry
panning, the Garrett green gold pan
works best, and is still a pretty
good pan for wet if your are in an
area where there isn't much black
sand. It's narrow bottom imitates
the batea, which is the fastest
gravel classification pan style
around. The Garrett is better for
separating gold out than the batea,
but still has the same problem in
heavy volumes of black sand. There
are also several smaller pans that
are considered finishing pans that
can also be used in the stream for
testing, but for finishing a wide
flat bottom is always best. The
color you use is up to you. Some
like blue better than green, and
black can make it harder to separate
the black sand from the gold. I
have recently (May 13, 2006) seen a
Proline pan with a flat bottom, so
this version now belongs here with
the flat bottomed pans. It's multi
width riffling system makes it a
very good gold catcher as well as a
quick separator with its' wide
bottom.

Then there are
the crown-bottomed pans. They have
the advantage of fast gravel
classification and a wide bottom.
TheGarrett Super Sluice has been
around for a number of years, and
has proven to be a very good pan for
most panning needs. It is a VERY
large pan and can be pretty heavy
when filled with material. The very
large indented riffles in its' side
capture black sand and gravel very
well, along with the gold, and is a
favorite with many panners. Be
prepared for the large amounts of
sand, black and otherwise, that will
be trapped in the large grooves.
Prolines' pan, which also has
indented grooves beginning at the
bottom, creates a small gravity type
trap, and is smaller like the
Keene. It is a favorite with many
panners and keeps gold well with its
multi width riffles. Both of these
pans have a nice wide bottom for
fanning your material out, but the
problem with the crowned bottoms is
that they tend to send all of the
material around the crease, and that
can make it hard to separate the
fine gold from the black sand, and
makes it difficult to jump the gold
to the top when you tap.

How about a
rectangular pan? Does it work?
Yes. However we have found it to be
difficult to use consistently for a
long time. As a specialty pan it
does a good job, but we find we fill
it with dirt and use another pan
more often than we stay with the
rectangular one. The oddest pan we
have seen was one that came from
Japan during a world competition in
Coloma, Ca. It resembled a small
wooden sluice without riffles and
was rocked back and forth at a slant
in the water. It was efficient, but
not as fast as many of the other
types of pans. That said, the
Grizzly Pan is also a rectangular
shape and it DOES work, if you do
the proper screening. If you are
doing a lot of panning, screening to
the recommended size is very time
consuming, and if you are in a large
gold area, you could throw off the
larger pieces unless you also go
through the screened material. In a
heavy black sand area, like ours,
processing more than one or two pans
makes it difficult to remove the
black stopper in the bottom of the
pan. You would probably need to
take all of the cons home and
process them there if you end up
with a lot of black sand. Removing
the stopper is not always easy, and
replacing it correctly is needed to
insure you keep your gold in the
bottom. The smallish size is easy
to manipulate and the action is also
easy to master. If you are looking
for a pan that can process material
well, and don't mind screening to a
small enough size, the Grizzly is a
good pan to use.

The new
Trinity Bowl has been used by us and
reviewed here previously. However it
is highly controversial among
panners as to effectiveness and our
past opinions have been scrutinized
to the point that we have decided it
would be prudent to let you make up
your own mind.

If you have a
pan that you would like to know
about, e-mail us at
hookedongold@gmail.com
and we will give it a test, or let
you know what we think if we have
already used it.